20 The Shock after
by Hardwing
Summary: With the last night having cut wounds which no stone sleep can heal, the clan seeks to put up the pieces. Yet, even with Darlene's help, can a hybrid feeling alone and being all too aware of what she has committed gather enough strength to go on?


**20. The Shock After:**

_I just want to thank the creators of DARK AGES for creating such a great background, and Storyseeker for correcting my fics and helping me with great ideas and for the characters of his ficverse._

"Where?" his father demanded.

"They have their base at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in a complex known as... " Thailog began.

"...The cloisters," Goliath growled, remembering the place where a long time ago Demona, with the help of a deceived Brooklyn, had charmed him.

"So I can spare the directions," the clone commented, taking one step back. "They're attacking the labyrinth."

"**What?**" Goliath roared, jumping forward with white glowing eyes, only to be stopped by the end of a gun pointing at him.

Elisa, Fox, Brooklyn and a group of clan warriors rushed into the labyrinth.

Her well trained eyes caught the scenery all too well, and in half a heartbeat they were fixated on the fur covered, winged body lying ahead of her.

"Derek..." Elisa whispered, the arm holding the gun dropping, as she ran towards the limp body. "DEREK!"

Brooklyn stood over a shocked but living Delilah.

"He called and we had to follow," Delilah continued, more to herself than anyone else.

"What?" Brooklyn asked, staring down on her.

"He called us through the doors..." the hybrid said, still staring emotionless ahead. "Kill them all!"

"Search for material we can seal the gates with,"Brooklyn ordered. The inhabitants were either dead, missing or had been unable to resist."The Labyrinth is dead."

Goliath and Achilles fought with Lucifia, failing to stop her from sacrificing Brentwood on an altar, regaining her dark powers.

"You are toooo laaate," she stated, still held by him, and seconds later the horns on her forehead small as that of a chamois began to grow, along with her body.

Seemingly unstoppable, she fled when Xanatos' Goon Squad arrived.

_Back at the castle the clan berates what to do with Delilah._

"She needs help, not jail!" Darlene replied, pointing at Delilah who had once again retracted into her own world, and no sooner then she said it she realised she meant it. "She will live with us."

"She will **not!**" Demona snarled, stepping nearer to her daughter.

Mother and daughter looked at each other for a second, as the room around them became silent.

"She will," Darlene replied silently, staring directly into her mother's eyes and ignoring the rumbling feeling of her stomach. "Either she comes with us or I will stay here. I will be there for her."

***19. Movements in the Dawn***

**14.09.98; 09:37; Castle Wyvern, Morgue:**

Elisa sat on a chair beside the table holding the body of her brother, now being covered by a blanket. Barely aware of the other bodies that had been brought into the room, victims of this vicious night, her only company was Goliath, her husband and love, though in his day-form that she leaned on, weeping.

Slowly, the detective took deep breathes, as she felt life creeping back into places it hadn't been in since dawn-break, and the retreating chains of shock left her to experience the pain without cover, while leaving place for other thoughts.

~ What has happened with Chavez? ~ she asked herself, and knew she would have to ask Xanatos, yet felt herself unable to desert her brother yet.

***Bash***

"**Don't you dare to...**"

"**Peter, no!**"

"**Dad!**"

Her police instincts kicking in, and recognising the voices, Elisa practically jumped off the chair and ran out of the room, into the room where the scene, her mental eye had already imagined, was playing out.

Xanatos stood there holding one bleeding lip, while being shielded by Owen from her father who right now was being held back by her mother, a look of pure hate on his face, Beth standing in the background, looking totally shocked.

"Don't you dare tell me how sorry you are, you lying bastard!" Peter Maza shouted at Xanatos from over his wife.

"**DAD!**" Elisa shouted at him. This worked, and her family finally noticed her.

"Derek is in there," she said calmly.

As if her words had made it more real for him, Peter's face turned even graver, but he let himself be led to the morgue by his wife without resistance.

"Sis..." Beth began, walking over to her.

Wordlessly, Elisa embraced her younger sister, and both followed their parents, Xanatos and Owen watching likewise wordlessly.

**14.09.98; 21:09; Castle Wyvern, Courtyard:**

"Last night was one of the hardest nights this clan has ever faced," Goliath said in an earnest voice. "Siblings and children, friends and innocents have been taken out of our lives, and we all are left to mourn for them."

He looked around, over at the funeral pyres holding the corpses of his two mated younger siblings, Talon, Maggie, Brentwood, and as well as that of some homeless people whom nobody knew the names of.

"I came to know Talon when he was adapting to his mutation," Goliath remembered. "And despite initial disagreements we became strong allies, and each of our clans helped to make this city a better place."

The courtyard was filled over its limit, with Elisa's family and the ones knowing the Labyrinth clan the best standing the nearest, and Broadway holding Angela close in his strong arms.

"Maggie came to this city in search of fame, money and a place in the world," Goliath continued. "Instead she found violence and hardship. Others might have been broken by all that she experienced, but instead she gained strength in her mateship to Talon who shared her fate, and who helped each other through their love."

In a decent distance to the Mazas, the Xanatoses had taken place near a floor entrance, Fox who held Alex close to her and followed all this readily, with David standing close by motionless, his face being hidden in the shadows.

"Our siblings who gave their lives to defend our allies remind us all that this duty to protect the ones we care for is never harmless," the leader of his clan continued, looking shortly at one large pyre where his younger siblings rested. "They were taken out of their lives when a new and wonderful part of it was just about to begin... together."

In the crowd, Mary shed silent tears with her sisters near her, but closest with her mate who held her in his strong blue arms, his wings caped over hers.

Brooklyn stood aside all of this, watching with a face like it was etched in stone.

"Brentwood..." Goliath hesitated.

Not too far away, Darlene stood with Gem in her arms, a catatonic looking Delilah, and Jarred with Lana by his side, all looking unhappy.

"His life was too short," the big lavender Gargoyle finally said.

With these words and a hard look from Darlene, the leader walked back into the mass of his clan.

"I will miss them," One of the dead Gargoyle's rookery siblings said, stepping forward and then going back to them.

"They were always close," said another when stepping into the circle. "They were happiest this way."

"Seeing them together filled my heart with joy, thinking how much happiness had laid before them," Agamemnon's mate said.

"When I saw them on their mating day, I..." Smokey said, rolling about on his wheelchair that the doctor had insisted on, yet having trouble taking breath from both his wounds and his feelings. "It was the first time I truly longed for sharing my future with someone special."

Everyone watched him when he rolled back, but was especially observed by Ruth.

By then Brooklyn had taken a step forward.

"I loved my siblings..." the Second of the clan said. "I loved them, and can't say anymore than you have already said for Talon and Maggie..." he hesitated a second. "…or _Derek_ and Maggie. The start could have been better, but I admired them for making the best of their situation and helping people who needed help... They will never be forgotten."

Stepping back into the crowd, Elisa prepared to step forward, but her mother held her back, stepping forth much to the surprise of her family.

"I know not too much of the life my son led. Whether you called him Talon or Derek doesn't matter to me, as I think you all understand this well," Diane Maza said, her voice low but steady, gaining some nods of the older clan members. "I come from a family where most members have chosen their lives in service to their community, and I knew from the very first day Elisa chose to become a police officer that I would have to live with the risk of loosing her."

She hesitated.

"When Derek chose to follow her, I knew I had to accept it for another one of my children, which may be one of the reasons why I supported him when he decided to leave the police..." Diane swallowed. "I am very proud what he fought for, but I will miss him so very much..."

Having said this, she stepped back to her family where Beth hugged her, while beside them Elisa leaned against her mate.

Silence came once again over the scene, even the hatchlings, the soon to be grown-ups with all but Jarred standing aside in a group, and the newly hatched in the arms of their rookery mothers, remained silent.

Knowing that in a moment Goliath would give the order to set the pyres aflame, Darlene gave Delilah a short look and then decided to act, handing a surprised Gem to a surprised Lana, and stepped forward.

"I knew each of them for just a very short time so I can't say much," she said, looking around on everyone's faces. "But I **have** to say something about Brentwood."

Some of the faces looking on her hardened, most of all her own mother's who stood on one of the towers, watching the scene from aside with no one beside her except for Shade.

"I know a few of you probably think he earned his fate, that he was at fault," Darlene threw a short look around, taking a short break at the hatchlings. "But please remember that it was Thailog who forced him to do it. He had no freewill in this action, no more as you would have done if you had been under a spell."

Having said this, and seeing from the faces around her that her words had no great effect, Darlene stepped back to her family.

After seeing that no one else was going to respond, Goliath nodded in the direction of some clan members who on this signal stepped forward with some torches, setting afire the piles.

**On One of The Floors:**

The grey Gargess walked, or rather stumbled, down the floor, knowing that they would soon be filled with many others. She was eager to find a silent place.

"My love," the voice of her mate called her from behind.

She stiffened; trying to hold her shoulders straight, but did not turn around.

"Leave me," the bold Gargess told him. "This is the distance you wanted."

Tom stopped for a moment, looking worried.

"That was not what I wanted," he replied. "And in times like this we all need someone close..."

He stepped nearer, laying a dark brown claw on his mate's shoulder.

"That is what mates are for," Tom said.

Finally, she turned around, and though her tear-filled eyes were no surprise to him, her words were…

"You know the prank I played on our sister when they mated for the first time?" she asked. "I did so because she was forever acting sooo happy and stuck-up all the time just because she..."

Tom nodded; the poisonous plants she had placed in the flowers their sisters had decorated her sister's hair with had nearly doubled her face's size, as it had swollen up. Though no one had ever proven she had been behind it, everyone had known, and the only fact that in the end the mates hadn't cared too much, at least in front of the clan, had saved her that time, but not the relation between the sisters.

"We never reconciled," she whispered.

Silently, not saying a word, Tom embraced her, enveloping her with his two wings pairs.

**14.09.98; 21:29; Castle Wyvern, Xanatos's Office:**

Xanatos and Goliath both looked up when Maria Chavez and Elisa entered.

"Excuse the delay," the captain said. "I had to offer Peter my condolences."

"The way you hurried to leave after you woke up, we wondered if you were coming back," Xanatos noticed.

"I had to inform my family that I was safe," Chavez said icily in the direction of the billionaire. "Not to mention I had to inform the precinct as well."

"About Lucifia?" Goliath assumed, Elisa stepping close to him.

"No, for now the precinct only knows that it was a sect who kidnapped me, and that you were the ones that freed me," she explained. "I'll leave it at that for now."

Goliath lost a bit of his tension, but Elisa looked at Chavez's face, more precisely at the sad and dark expression upon it. After all the years she had spent serving with this woman, she knew better than anyone whenever she had some bad news to tell.

"This isn't all," she noticed.

"With her new strength, as Elisa described it, and with her recent victims, the streets have become too dangerous for my officers at night to trust any winged shape over them to just be one of your clan," Chavez said, taking a deep breath. "So I have given them the authority to arrest each and every Gargoyle that comes too close to them."

"**WHAT?**" Goliath roared, his wings extended.

**14.09.98; 22:47; Destine Mansion, Demona's Study:**

Jarred sat on his grandmother's chair, reading the large spellbook now lying on the working desk, Shade being his unusual companion, resting silently at the chair's feet. His face had an unusually stern expression, as he studied the words that were written in Latin, and which he still had great problems trying to understand.

"Exsilu.. exili..." the hatchling tried. "Exsi..."

"...lium." a female voice helped him.

Jarred looked up, discovering his grandmother standing at the door, watching him sternly.

"Hi, granny," he said sweetly.

"You know you are not supposed to read this book," Demona noted, walking nearer, not the slightest bit moved by his tone.

"Not exactly," Jarred replied sheepishly, in a manner that caused his grandmother to think that he had spent too much time with Thersities. "You said we should never use it except for when we really _really_ need it."

"And what do you need banishment spells for?" Demona asked, taking a look at the book.

"Lucifia," her grandson replied.

The immortal stopped at the mention of her daughter.

"The spells you're looking at work for demons, elementals..." Demona began neutrally, "…anything not belonging here, but… She _is_ from here."

"You said a part of her is," Jarred added, though feeling bad about defying his grandmother. "If we could banish the other half, or use ingredients to..."

"Her other side prevents it... It is somehow resistant to all magic," the red haired Gargess explained, picking up the volume and putting it back in the safe, her tone now hopeless. "I went through all of this before, and nothing can help."

"Elementals?" Jarred tried. "Freezing her, setting her on fire?"

"I told you what happened when your mother tried to call them," Demona reminded him. "In battle they would likewise be dangerous, to us as well as to them."

Jarred jumped off the chair, his tail hanging unhappily.

"I just don't want more people to die," he said in a low voice.

Demona turned, her face unreadable.

"You tried to help," his grandmother noted, sounding tired. "But sometimes there is nothing you can do."

No knowing what else to say, she tried to change topic. "How is your mother?"

Jarred shrugged his shoulders. "She tries to help Delilah eat," he said, stroking Shade who touched his hips. "I hope she feels better soon."

Demona didn't respond on that, but laid a claw on her grandson's shoulder. "Let's look for your sisters," she suggested. "Maybe we can play one of your games."

This caused Jarred to look up in surprise at her, never loosing the look all the way up.

**14.09.98; 23:13; Castle Wyvern, Highest Tower:**

"There you are!" Emilia said, looking at her mate, as he thus looked over the courtyard where some of the clan were cleaning away the rest of the ashes left over from the pyres. "Kronos is searching for you. The whole clan is in an uproar because of what the human captain said."

Achilles didn't react, but when he did his mate was surprised by his thoughtful look. "He told me so," he replied.

Bothered by his reaction and knowing he had been this way since he had come back, Emilia stroked his face. "We can finally show them where Goliath's way of leadership has brought us," she said. "So what is it?"

Achilles tried to evade her soft touch, but it was to no avail. "Would I really serve the clan any better?" he asked.

Emilia looked at him in disbelief, then she held his face with both claws. "You would make a wonderful leader," she insisted, adding a little lie. "Everybody thinks this."

"I couldn't hold her," Achilles finally revealed. "How can I serve the clan when I was not able to hold her long enough to prevent her from further harming us? Killing us?"

"Shhh," Emilia said, holding a finger on his mouth and looking into his eyes. "No one could have held her for so long."

Achilles let his wings cape over his mate, looked in the nightly sky and hoped he could have believed this.

~ The next time I'll hold her, ~ he vowed to his clan.

**15.09.98; 02:34; Destine Mansion, Darlene's Room:**

"Sister," Darlene begged. "Please, you must eat something."

Delilah didn't respond, and instead she looked ahead, sitting on the bed with her knees close to her chest, and her tail wrapped around her, as she had done since Darlene had placed her there.

Sighing, the blonde Gargess put the plate with the bread on the next table, and stared at the hybrid.

"It will not help anybody if you starve," she mentioned.

No response.

"I lost somebody I loved, too," Darlene added, absently stroking her stomach. "I and my husband planned to spend the rest of our lives together, and when he died I felt as if a part of myself died, too."

Leaving her stomach be, she laid her left claw on her sister's brown-skinned left arm.

"But there is more in life you can have, and must live for," she explained. "You have a family to live for. Can't you see that?"

Delilah remained silent, as she had done all that time, and did nothing but stare ahead in front of her.

**15.09.98; 04:23; Trinity Church Graveyard:**

The shadowy form of Lucifia landed smoothly and silently, watching over the scenery of gravestones and trees until her black eyes found a single human dressed in the uniform of a watchmen, who just nodded to her before continuing his round.

Taking a bag off her side, she opened it and placed a little wormlike thing on the grave in front of her.

"Soon," she told it, as the being of another dimension began digging itself into the ground with its many hair-like arms.

After she had made sure it had dug itself in, Lucifia got up, jumped up into one tree, and from there back into the sky.

**15.09.98; 09:48; 23rd Police Department, Conference Room:**

"You want us to shoot them?" Phil Travanti asked, shocked.

"No more than you would on humans," Chavez explained. "But I want you to be prepared to shoot them if they pose a danger to you or anyone else."

"Sorry, captain," Li noticed. "But didn't you tell us they saved you?"

Chavez nodded in earnest.

"They saved me, but that isn't the point," she added. "Right now these... _terrorists,_ are bringing the city near to a catastrophe. Paranoia will soon follow, and you know what the media will make of further Gargoyle involvement."

"But with this cult spreading, aren't they the best ones to trust?" Morgan thought out loud. "I mean, it isn't as if there are any Gargoyles in the cult."

Chavez remained silent for a moment, Elisa and Bluestone watching her intensively.

"We don't know this," she finally admitted. "I don't want you to go around and shoot at any Gargoyle you see, but if one is in your way and you feel threatened, you know what to do."

Silence lay over the room.

"Make sure everyone understand my orders," Chavez told them, looking around. "And has anyone seen Balnetti?"

Walking out, Elisa pulled Bluestone into a silent room.

"What do you think?" she asked.

"What the hell did Lucifia to her?" Matt asked.

Silently, Elisa shook her head.

"I don't know, but I don't want any of the clan to be at risk by being shot at by one of us," she said.

Matt remained silent for a second, before answering, "I could ask my..." he hesitated. "…_friends_, to intervene."

Elisa looked at him, knowing the word he didn't want to speak out was _Illumaniti_.

"They would?" she asked.

"I bet they would take Lucifia's threat as serious as we do," Matt replied.

Elisa hesitated, the thought of plotting against a friend who had just mourned the loss of her brother with her repelled her.

"Keep this as an option," she told him.

**15.09.98; 9:27; Nightstone HQ, Translation Department:**

Sandra Xue worked over the latest translations concerning their communication with the local Communist official. Since the failed deal, Nightstone had to make great efforts to get a grip of just an aspect of the market, which meant that the East Asia department, including the translation office, had to work at the border of over-fatigue.

"How far are you?" a voice asked Sandra who was sunken in front of her monitor in another translation.

"Nearly ready," she replied with a smile at McOwen. "Three days and it'll be nearly ready."

"You have to make it again," he said.

Sandra's jaw dropped.

"If it is because of the last mistake..." she began, but McOwen shook his head.

"Miss Destine called today saying she would work home for some time," he said. "She wants us to send our texts exclusively on the XMLS system, using our secure format."

Sandra stared at him.

"Those formats are incompatible," she noted as a matter of fact, though knowing very well that he knew, too. "I can't copy it and put it in this format by hand. It will take two days!"

"She wants it today," he explained.

Sandra sank on the chair. The beast knew how to terrorize people, even from her cave...

"Get it ready and I let Allen will do the rest," McOwen offered. "Hell, you're pumped out enough, and I know you want to visit your mother."

The black-haired woman got herself together, sighing.

"No, it is okay," she said. "She has gotten better."

What she didn't say was that although Allen was good, he was not that good, and she was not going to risk putting her job on the line for him, not after the latest disaster with Taro Industries, even if this meant her mother would once more be alone.

McOwen looked at her for a moment and then nodded, laying a hand on her shoulder before leaving her to her work.

Sandra stared at the monitor with the nearly ready text, before taking a deep breath and beginning to work.

**15.09.98; 12:13; Elisa's Old Apartment:**

Elisa felt a little shiver, as she opened the door to her former home, especially after seeing her mother rising from the couch.

"Elisa, I was worried," she told her, embracing her. "You are overdue."

"I had to make some detours, just to make sure," her daughter replied.

"Beth is sleeping in your old bed," Diane said. "She wanted to be awake before the trip so we can sleep."

The door to the bathroom opened, and Elisa's father Peter walked into the room.

"She has the instincts of a cop," the former officer noted, his tone having the hint of sarcasm mixed with pain.

For a moment, Elisa just watched her father, unable to say anything.

"Is this really necessary?" Diane asked,

"You will be safe there," her daughter stopped her. "The two of them will keep you safe enough, if this is even possible."

She stopped, not wanting to speak Téa and Fara's names out, though knowing that the two Nigerian were-panthers would take good care of her family.

"I didn't mean this, dear," her mother replied dryly. "I meant the fact that you and your father aren't speaking to each other, despite that we will leaving soon."

Elisa first looked unbelieving at her mother, and then at her father who responded her look.

"Why can't you come with us?" Peter asked, picking up the fight where they had left off at after Derek's funeral.

"Why can't you live at the castle?" Elisa responded. "You don't want to get trapped, and I don't want to run."

"I don't want to lose another child," her father said, suddenly looking years older. "Can't you see that?"

"I don't want this either," Elisa tried, walking a step nearer. "But this city and my other family needs me. I can't just leave."

Peter looked away, but his daughter stayed constant.

"He is my husband and they are family," she said seriously. "Does it really trouble you so much?"

Peter walked away to the window. Elisa wanted to follow him, but her mother stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, shaking her head.

"Maybe less than you think," he replied. "I've known this city a very long time, but it has changed now. Gargoyles coming to life, sorcery, fairies, cults, and now what? The end of the world? This isn't the city Chavez and I went on patrol in. This isn't the city I wanted my girl to protect."

Slowly, Elisa stepped closer, laying a hand on her father's shoulder, as her mother had done before.

"I have been afraid before, of criminals or a bullet you couldn't see coming, " Peter continued. "But in _these_ streets, I can feel danger I can't see coming."

"Do you think I can?" Elisa asked, trying a smile. "But I know I was trained good, and that this whole city needs me to make it safe again."

Peter put his hand on that of his daughter, and smiled.

"I am proud of you," he said. "I always have been."

"I know," Elisa replied and embraced him. "And I will miss you all so very much."

**16.09.98; 20:37; Castle Wyvern Rookery:**

"What do you mean I can't go?" Angela asked, irritated. "You told me I was free to leave!"

"Free to be at the castle, or to spend time with your mate, child," the yellow-skinned rookery mother said, handing a hatchling with white hair over to Aerie. "Not free to leave it for fun."

"I promised Darlene to look after Delilah while she is here with her children," the younger gargess noted. "It is a chore."

"Don't even start this trick with me, young one," the white-haired Gargess replied as someone who had argued with lots of reluctant youngsters before. "Now run along before I find a true chore for you."

Angela looked at her for a moment, then she left, knowing very well her rookery mother could make this true.

"Treating me like a hatchling," she grumbled.

~ Lex and Bea are working with the moscitos, ~ Angela thought, quickly moving away out of anger to get out of this situation. ~ Desdemona and Othello are on patrol, Lana's friends will want to meet her, so who do I go to... Hudson? ~

She quickly walked to the television room.

"Has anyone seen Hudson?" she asked the various Gargoyles of all ages gathered there.

"He and his mate had a talk with the human doctor about his new leg," Agamemnon's mate replied. "Afterwards they will probably want to take some time together."

"Oh," Angela replied, depressed. "Thanks."

While leaving the room, she found Aerie waiting for her in the corridor.

"Daughter, a word?" the older Gargess asked.

"Mhh, sure," Angela said, perplexed by the fact that this one had never addressed her as such.

"I just wanted to speak to you about the rookery mother." the cloud-blue Gargess explained. "You may think she is just mean, but she is worried about you. You want to go there because you want to meet Demona, isn't it?"

"A little," Angela admitted, recounting the few times she and her mother had been able to talk. "But mainly I want too look after Delilah, and according to my sister, mother doesn't even come close to the room."

"Another bad reason to go there," Aerie noticed, her tuft tail swinging around. "She is dangerous."

"No more than anyone who was under a spell," Angela replied in a hard voice.

"No, more like a being created by a spell," the older Gargess added. "She is no more than such."

"She is!" Goliath's daughter replied angrily, but then calmed down, knowing it would lead to nothing. "Look, I'm running out of time. Would you..."

"NO!" Aerie replied sharply.

Angela sighed.

"Then..." she began.

"Angela!" Broadway's voice called out to her, and turning around she discovered him walking nearer.

"Give me a few minutes to help find someone," his mate begged.

"Too late, they are off already," the thick Gargoyle replied, adding in an excusing tone. "I tried to stop them, but they were nervous."

Angela's shoulders dropped.

**16.09.98; 21:07; Destine Mansion, Demona's Study:**

Demona drank some water, as she worked over the Chinese and English version of the letter to the Chinese office, which would hopefully bring Nightstone further into the market, when a knock sounded on the door.

"I thought you were gone already," the immortal said, looking up as she discovered Darlene standing there, her thick belly being less and less able to hide her being with egg. "Or do you plan to let Jarred skip another training lesson?"

Darlene bit her lip.

"Angela can't come," she said. "I need someone to look after Delilah, so will you... "

"No," her mother replied, not even looking up.

"Then he has to skip another lesson, for I won't let them go there without me," Darlene added. "Or maybe two more?"

"You wouldn't risk him failing in his tests for adulthood," Demona said, looking up.

Her daughter met the immortal's gaze, crossing her arms.

"No, you wouldn't," came a young Gargoyle's voice from behind the door.

"**JARRED,** out with you **NOW**!" Darlene shouted.

When the sounds of feet moving had vanished, the pregnant Gargoyle looked back to her mother.

"So?" she asked.

"I'll stay," Demona answered, turning back to her monitor.

"With her?" Darlene asked further.

"Not in the same room," her mother told her.

"You will look check on her," Darlene said, touching her swelled stomach. "Once an hour."

"Once for the whole night," Demona replied. "And don't try more."

Darlene wanted to respond, but the voice of her son coming from downstairs stopped her...

"Mom, it's tiiimmee!"

Darlene swallowed. "She had better still be here when I come back," she then said in a hard tone.

Behind her back, Demona watched her leave with Shade whining a bit.

**16.09.98; 21:12; Castle Wyvern, Asrial's Workshop:**

EDDISON: I'm sorry.

NEWTON: Me, too. I remember seeing them playing when they were younger... and Talon and Maggie were nice to us.

EDDISON: Yeah they really had a heart for people in need.

EDDISON: ?

NEWTON: I'm sorry... you know they are all dead, my gate didn't hold, but the only thing I can think about is that I'm happy that you weren't there.

EDDISON: This is ok.  
NEWTON: How can you say that?

EDDISON: Because I feel the same about you.

There was a knock at the door, one that was very cautious, making Asrial look up in shock, lowering the monitor of the laptop.

"Yes?" the orange Gargess asked, not standing up from her high stool.

"Are there any laser beams directed at the door?" the voice of her cowardly brother asked.

"No," Asrial replied, shaking her head. How could her brother still be afraid because of that one time?

"No sharp ends or things that explode?" her brother added.

"Get in!" she shouted.

Slowly the door opened, and an even slower Thersities walked in, always ready to jump, carrying a tray.

"Breakfast," he said, his tail closing the door.

"Put it on some free place," Asrial told him, looking back at the monitor.

Looking around, Thersities noticed that every table and chair was covered. "_Where_?" the horned Gargoyle asked.

"The floor," the chatting Gargoyle said, without looking up.

"Chatting with Thomas?"

"Yes," she replied, tipping something. "Shall I tell him something from you."

"Ask him if he still has this beast, and can I stay until Darlene arrives? Our limping rookery mother looks as if she wants to give me a chore."

Asrial grinned, and continued typing.

**16.09.98; 21:27; Castle Wyvern, Top of The Courtyard:**

Darlene landed on the courtyard with Lana, who was holding Gem by her side. Jarred had already joined the other hatchlings who were waiting with Brooklyn for their training to begin, and their bodyguards had already glided away to report back to the clan.

To her surprise, she found Macbeth watching the hatchlings, greeting her.

"Good evening, dear ladies," the immortal greeted them courteously.

"Macbeth," Darlene greeted back. "Lana, please take your sister to the rookery, and don't forget your lesson begins soon."

Lana grumbled a little, but did as she was told, carrying Gem away.

"It seems your lassie has less spirit for her training than your lad," the white-haired man commented, watching the half-Gargoyle leave.

"If this were the only thing she is less eager to..." Darlene replied when she was sure her daughter was out of ear-reach, and let out a sigh.

"I didn't get mother to sign the papers," she admitted, depressed.

"I hate to say I'm not surprised," Macbeth noticed. "My old friend was always eager to go to great lengths, if it was a way to hurt me... Paris was only one example."

Darlene bit her lip, feeling a sudden rush of shame.

"Why do you want this divorce so quickly?" she asked. "You never told me that."

The immortal didn't answer at once, and Darlene saw that he was reluctant to reveal it...

"Hello!" a voice greeted them.

Turning around, they found Thersities landing with a wide smile on his beak.

"I waited for you," he said.

"And I for you, young one," a hard voice came from behind the green Gargoyle's back.

Thersities yelped and jumped ahead, then turned around to find the limping elder standing behind him.

"You still have chores to do before the meeting starts," she insisted grimly. "And don't think I haven't noticed you trying to evade me!"

"I promised to spent time with Darlene," Thersities defended himself.

"Yes, we wanted to eat a snack together yesterday," Darlene intervened. "Since I couldn't come I would like it now, and I haven't time later."

"Do it tomorrow then, I haven't seen this one in the kitchen for ages, and I can't count on catching him another night," the elder replied without any sense of romance, looking at her rookery son as if he were once again a hatchling having tried to evade a lesson. "You come with me!"

The so scolded Gargoyle bowed his head, beginning to resign himself to his fate, when Macbeth laid a hand on his left shoulder.

"I would like to take his place tonight," the immortal said. "I owe you something for this meal and the meals before. Besides, I owe it to Darlene for her help."

The elder first looked angrily at the human, then at her son, but in the end nodded, leading the human to the kitchen.

"Another night!" she promised before leaving.

"A nice human," Thersities commented when his rookery mother was out of reach.

"Yes," Darlene agreed with a sad tone in her voice.

**16.09.98; 22:07; Destine Mansion:**

Demona was still sitting at the computer, going over reports and thinking about whom to fire, to make her employees working properly once again. Suddenly, without any obvious reasons, Shade, having sat at the foot of her chair, rose up whining.

Surprised, the immortal saw how Shade first slowly, and then quickly walked out of the room. Alarmed, she followed her, grabbing a mace hanging at the wall in the process. Seconds later, Demona found her friend in front of the bathroom, throwing herself against the door.

"What the..." she began, following Shade in.

Instead of finding the intruder she expected, Demona found Delilah slacked against the side of the bath. The hybrid's arms were over it, with blood slowly running through her opened veins down into the drain.

"_Pah,_" Demona whispered. "_How fitting._"

Yet Shade was by the hybrid's side, licking the face that was so much like of that hated human, showing sympathy through soft sounds.

The immortal looked at the scene for a moment, registering Delilah's bracelets lying on the toilet to not cover the veins in the wrist where she had cut. She continued staring at her a while longer, before cursing and heading for the cupboard where she pulled out the First Aid Kit.

**16.09.98; 22:36; Castle Wyvern, Television Room:**

_"Look, Simba." Mufasa said, sitting on the rock, viewing high over the Savannah. "Everything the light touches is our kingdom." _

_"Wow," Simba could only say. _

"They should show it at night," Victoria commented.

"They will, but only when Scar has run it into the ground," Jarred said, only to be interrupted by the crowd of hatchlings having cornered themselves in front of the TV after a stressing time of training.

"Hey! Don't spoil it! Keep your trap shut!"

"Sor-ry," Jarred excused himself to the other Disney-hungry hatchlings.

"Why are we watching this anyway?" Duncan asked, standing near the door with his arms crossed. "The whole clan is discussing matters of life and death, and we are stuck here watching cartoons."

"You know what the elders threatened us with if we sneak in again," a pale brown hatchling with fair hair said.

_"What about that shadowy place?" Simba asked_

"I don't speak about eavesdropping," Duncan replied. "Let's train."

Siblings who weren't too eager to have extra training threw chips and popcorn at him, but the white-skinned hatchling took them stoically.

_"That's beyond our borders," Mufasa replied. "You must never go there, Simba." _

"They prepare to fight for their lives... _our lives_, and all you want to do is this?" he said, pointing to the TV. "We won't do any fighting, but I'll rather train to show I am thinking about it. Who is with me?"

Not waiting for an answer, Duncan turned around and left for the training-room, as everyone knew he would.

For a second there was silence, as the rest of the hatchlings looked at each other, while only Eve looked angrily after her rookery brother.

As the second past, the fair-haired and brown-skinned male hatchling rose to follow his brother, as Eve did so, and then the rest.

_"But I thought a king could do whatever he wants?" Simba asked._

**16.09.98; 23:29; Destine Mansion, Kitchen:**

Demona leaned over the cooking pot where she slowly cooked something unidentifiable, when Delilah came stumbling into the room.

"Why?" the hybrid asked, her silver bracelets hiding stitches where the older Gargess had sealed her veins.

"Letting you die there would, for some reason, make my daughter angry at me," Demona replied, not even looking at the hybrid whose approach she had noticed even from far away. "More stress isn't good for the egg she carries."

Delilah stumbled into the kitchen, letting herself fall into the chair at the table, Shade rushing to her side.

"I want to die," she said.

"Sure you do," Demona replied, chuckling a bit while continuing to cook. "But do it when I am not around, or else they will blame me... But then again, on second thought, they will blame me anyway, so go on, kill yourself anyway."

Smiling icily, Demona looked at the clone, then noticing how the hybrid was very pale.

"My brothers are gone, Talon's dead, and Maggie… I... " The hybrid stopped.

"Killed her," Demona finished her sentence, stopping to look at the younger Gargoyle's eyes, but found her staring ahead instead, weeping. "Pah! Stop that already, have you nothing better to do?"

"**WHAT CAN I DO?**" Delilah shouted at the blue Gargess, facing her angrily. "My brothers, my home gone... "

She stopped, telling herself that she had forgotten the manners Maggie had once tried to teach her and her brothers so hard, and forgetting just for a moment that she had killed her.

"Then take **revenge** on who did this to you, all of them!" Demona snapped back, before turning back to her pot. "You are pathetic! No doubt the detective's genes."

Silence prevailed for some minutes, and then the immortal brought a plate full of some unidentifiable food to her.

"Eat it or stare at it, but don't make them believe I would satarve you," Demona told her before taking herself some food.

Delilah stared at the food for a moment. "Will it make the pain go away?" she asked. "To take revenge?"

"It always eased mine," Demona replied with a dark grin.

Delilah thought about it, and then she took a spoonful of the food.

"It tastes good," the hybrid noticed, just realizing how hungry she was then, and that she felt hungry for the first time since the massacre.

"I know," Demona replied, taking a spoon from her own plate. "Unfortunately, my family never seemed to realize that."

The doors to the veranda opened, and Shade barked a greeting.

"Mother, I..." Darlene began, her children following her, but stopped when she discovered the scene of her mother and half-sister eating together. "?"

**To be continued...**


End file.
